The present invention relates to a vehicle closure body structure and a related method and, more particularly, to an internal structure of a vehicle closure body, which can be applied to a trunk lid, an engine hood and doors of an automotive vehicle to be opened and closed, and its related method of arranging wiring harness in a vehicle closure body structure such that the wiring harness is routed and equipped in the vehicle closure body structure.
In general, a vehicle closure body is applied to a trunk lid, an engine hood, a back door and side doors of an automotive vehicle to be opened and closed, preferably.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-322565 discloses a structure wherein a closure body is mounted to an opening portion of a vehicle body by means of hinges for opening and closing capabilities. The closure body has a hollow structure composed of an outer panel and an inner panel and has one terminal end, formed with hinge fixing areas, with which a reinforcement is joined at an inner side of the closure body for reinforcement.
However, upon careful studies undertaken by the present inventors, since the closure body has a door lock or a device, such as a lamp, required to be supplied with an electric power, wiring harness must be arranged to be accurately routed and surely equipped for supplying the electric power in an area between the vehicle body and an electric power demanded area of the closure body. When this takes place, introduction of the wiring harness may be preferably carried out from a periphery of the hinge fixing area with the least amount of movement during opening or closing operations of the closure body. Then, a worker conducts the arranging operation while forcibly pushing the wiring harness, of which distal end is inserted to an inner space of the closure body, to cause the distal end of the wiring harness to reach the electric power demanded area.
When performing the arranging operation of the wiring harness, since the worker needs to perform an invisible operation wherein the worker is hard to look at the distal end of the wiring harness remaining in the inner space of the closure body, the worker has no choice but to rely on only his sense of feeling. For this reason, it is conceivable that if the worker is not a skilled person, then it takes much time for him to complete the arranging operation while there is a probability wherein the wiring harness is arranged in a wrong path different from a preset pattern.
The present invention has been completed upon the above studies conducted by the inventors and has an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle closure body structure and a related method which enable wiring harness to be easily and precisely arranged without the need for a skilled person.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a vehicle closure body structure comprising: an outer panel; an inner panel opposed to the outer panel, with the outer panel and the inner panel forming a hollow structure of a closure body adapted to be mounted to an opening portion of a vehicle body through a hinge secured to the inner panel; a reinforcement joined to the inner panel, inside the closure body, in at least a hinge fixing area thereof at which the hinge is fixed; and a tunneled portion formed in the reinforcement to form a passage between the tunneled portion and the inner panel so as to permit wiring harness to be arranged therein.
Stated another way, the present invention provides a vehicle closure body structure comprising: an outer panel; an inner panel opposed to the outer panel, with the outer panel and the inner panel forming a hollow structure of a closure body adapted to be mounted to an opening portion of a vehicle body through a hinge secured to the inner panel; a reinforcement joined to the inner panel, inside the closure body, in at least a hinge fixing area thereof at which the hinge is fixed; and forming means for forming a passage so as to permit wiring harness to be arranged therein in connection with the inner panel, the forming means being disposed in the reinforcement. On the other hand, the present invention provides a method of arranging a harness in a vehicle closure body, which has an outer panel, an inner panel opposed to the outer panel and a reinforcement joined to the inner panel, and which is mounted to an opening portion of a vehicle body through a hinge fixed to the inner panel, the method comprising: pulling out a terminal portion of wiring harness, which is internally arranged through a vehicle body, from a takeoff hole formed at a periphery of an opening portion of the vehicle body; forcing the terminal portion of the wiring harness into an inside of the closure body; permitting the wiring harness to travel through the inside of the closure body while guiding the terminal portion of the wiring harness through a tunneled portion formed in the reinforcement; and taking out the terminal portion of the wiring harness from an opening portion of the closure body.
Other and further features, advantages, and benefits of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the following drawings.